On a beautiful spring day, I escaped to Mount Spokane State Park for a ramble. I deliberately started hiking low at the first parking after the park entrance to hike on dry trails that were most likely to be snow free.

I started up Trail 122 toward Trail 120, climbing over a few downed trees along the way.  There was snowmelt running down the trail in places, and increasing patches of snow around 4500’ or about the last 500” to snowmobile parking lot which was sunny and dry today. By the top, crossing the snow was unavoidable, but not difficult.

For my return, I chose Trail 100 to avoid climbing higher and discovering more snow on the trail. There was some patchy snow in places and more trees across the trail starting near upper parking lot. By the time I reached the first creek crossing, snow was completely across trail. I managed to slip and slide across it, leaving Chaco prints in my wake.  As I continued downhill, the snow vanished.

After crossing a bridge, I took Trail 110 downhill to my car.  I found a couple more trees across the trail, but they were small, so I hopped over them easily.

Today’s work party was a blast. We met at the first parking area beyond the park entrance, by the concrete outhouse. Half our group worked on trail 110, and my half of the group worked on trail 121. We cleared brush and snow laden low hanging limbs from the trail. There was one tree down across the trail that was easy to step over. There was another one a bit farther uphill which we made easier to pass. We ducked under the tree, but after it snows some more, that may not be an option, so we made a path to a low enough point to be able to step over it. We worked all the way up to the junction with trail 120, so half of the family loop is ready to hike.

We started early on this beautiful crisp morning, as we had slightly over 15 miles to hike and a somewhat heat-intolerant, but enthusiastic hiker dog with us.  From the parking area just inside the ranger station, we crossed the road and headed up trail 121 into the forest.  The trail connects with trail 120 in around a mile and switches back and forth between consistent uphill and mellow uphill as it works its way around the hillside and up to the cross-country ski parking area.  There are a couple serious inclines, including one you can't see the top of - a psych trail for sure.  A couple stops to catch your breath don't lose the trail cred you're building.  You'll be rewarded with ripe huckleberries on a few early bushes at the top. You're just under 4 miles when you hit the parking lot. 

Cross the paved road and reconnect with trail 130, heading toward bald knob and the campground.  A few more early huckleberries are trailside as you work your way up the mountain.  At the campground, about 4.5 miles into your day, you can stop and celebrate for a moment at the flush toilets or continue on trail 130, crossing the road and again entering the forest. 

This section of trail is fairly mellow, even level-ish.  It's heading across the mountain to the CCC cabin and Mt. Kit Carson Loop Road.  You can stop in at the CCC cabin, which has picnic tables and another bathroom and then either drop down the Mt. KC Road or exit through the CCC exit.  On your left as you're headed up the road, there are 2 side trails - take either of them - both leading directly to trail 140 in about 25 feet.  Turn right onto trail 140 from either of them if your goal is the summit of Mt. Spokane.  You're at about 5 miles here and will be hitting the summit at about the 7.25 mile marker. 

Eyes wide open on this section.  Mountain bikers may come screaming down the trail with little warning.  Otherwise, it's beautiful, though getting a bit dusty from the bikers.  The recent work to expand Mt. Spokane Ski Park has resulted in clearcuts in a couple places.  It hasn't harmed the trail itself and there are new vistas where there weren't before - and less shade.  The trail switchbacks from forest to clearcut all the way up.  At the top, depending on conditions, you can see for hundreds of miles in every direction.  Today, there was smoke in the lower elevations impacting our views somewhat, but up top, crystal clear air and a nice breeze.  Vista hut is a lovely place for a snack break; it's rock construction insulated us from the wind.

Back down trail 140 all the way to Saddle Junction had us well into mile 9.  Next up, Mt. Kit Carson, just to the right of the pit toilet (which has seen better days) is trail 160.  Well-marked, it's not too steep and mostly stays in the canopy after the first section.  More huckleberries await, but they need a couple more weeks of sunshine to ripen.  In about 1.75 miles, we hit the top of Mt. Kit Carson and enjoyed the view while finishing our lunch and then headed back down. 

Back at the Saddle Junction, we took trail 110 the last 4 miles down the mountain.  About a mile down, we ran into lots of ripe huckleberries and stuffed handfuls into our mouths before finally giving in and picking for 15 minutes.  Just enough to make huckleberry scones for breakfast!  Trail dog Lacey was happy for the break, too.  A note about that: water on the trails we did was sporadic, so be sure to carry enough water for doggy hikers, too.  Trail 110 had plenty of water flowing at several locations, so we took quick breaks for doggy drinks and cooling of feet. 

At the cars, our two gps apps had us between 15.25 and 15.5 miles for the day.  A great training hike for backpack trips soon to come!

Today was going up up up starting at the ranger station, down to the 120 trailhead by Bear creek lodge. About 10 mins into the run on 120 I saw a coyote for the first time ever in person! After that I followed 121 down to the park entrance and took 110 going up. At Saddle junction I took 160 to Mt Kit Carson wanting to see if many huckleberries were still around and found there are still a ton. I headed back down after taking in an incredible view from the top of KC and got on 140 to go catch the views at the top of Mt Spokane. 

Trails are in great shape and if you haven't already I'd recommend checking out trails 130 & 160 at Kit Carson. The WTA has done some great work on 130 and the vegetation in the area makes both of them scenic and a lot of fun to hike/run on.

With a forecast high of triple digits on the first day of the Hike a Thon, I headed for higher elevations for my first hike. As Mount Spokane beaconed, I parked just inside the park entrance by the pit toilet by the trailheads for trail 110, 121 and 121, reasoning that I would rather hike down than up at the end of the day.

I started  up trail 110 which was single track initially, then followed an abandoned road before dropping back to single track when it crossed the Kit Carson Loop. I climbed about 5 miles to the saddle junction, accounting for almost all of my nearly 2000 feet of elevation gain. I took a snack break there, then headed up Trail 130 which runs along the Kit Carson Loop at that point. Near the CCC cabin, I turned onto single track and hiked toward the Bald Knob picnic area and campground. After a brief pit stop and water refill there, I continued on Trail 130 to 132, turning left to follow it downhill to the snowmobile parking area which needs a summer name. Trail 132 was overgrown in places. I crossed the parking area to pick up Trail 120 by the pit toilet and headed downhill. I followed 120 down an old logging road to Trail 121. While the last bit was only a mile, I had to bypass 4 downed trees in that mile. Two were easy to step over. Two others had fallen together, and hikers had started creating a very steep bypass over the root ball. Even if they were limbed, I am not certain I could climb over those two.

Over all, I had a great day hiking in much cooler weather than what I found when I returned home.